Can You Pass This 4 Question Test?

This is a test. Please choose only one answer for each question. Some questions may seem to have more than one correct answer, you are to choose the best answer. If you do not finish all unanswered questions will be counted as incorrect.

1.  You are busy working on tasks around your home.  You hope to complete all of the tasks on your list before 5:00 p.m.  You suddenly notice that you are very thirsty.  You:

A.  Pause and get a drink of water

B.  Decide to finish the vacuuming before drinking water

C.  Tell yourself that you should wait until you have finished all of the tasks before drinking water.

D.  Admonish yourself for thinking about water when there is so much to be done.  You will only allow yourself to have water once everything is complete.  You pretend you are not thirsty.

2.  You are busy working on tasks around your home.  You hope to complete all of the tasks before 5:00 p.m.  You notice that you are very thirsty and the dog is indicating that he wants to go outside. You:

A.  Pause and get a drink of water and also fill the dog’s water bowl.

B.  Decide to finish the vacuuming before drinking water and praise the dog for waiting.

C.  Tell yourself that you should wait until you have finished all of the tasks before drinking water and tell the dog this is a good time to practice self control.

D.  Admonish yourself for thinking about water.  You glare at the dog for wanting to urinate when there is so much to be done.  You will only allow yourself to have water once everything is complete. Then and only then will you take the dog outside.  You pretend you are not thirsty and ignore the dog who is pacing by the door.

3. You are busy working on tasks around your home.  You hope to complete all of the tasks before 5:00 p.m.  You notice that you are very thirsty and the dog is indicating that it wants to go outside. You aren’t sure but you think you might smell smoke.  You:

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A.  Realize that on top of being thirsty you need to use the bathroom. In an effort to not think about urinating or drinking water you play some music at a high volume.

B.  Decide to finish the vacuuming before drinking water and praise the dog for waiting.  While you vacuum you wonder how long it has been since you changed the batteries in the smoke detectors and you make a mental note to buy batteries during your next shopping trip.

C.  Tell yourself that you should wait until you have finished all of the tasks before drinking water.  You start a shopping list and add smoke detector batteries to the list.  You add.  “Change smoke detector batteries”, to the bottom of your to-do-list.   You sweetly tell the dog that this is a good time to practice self control if you can hold then he can too.

D.  Admonish yourself for thinking about water.  You scowl at the dog for wanting to urinate when there is so much to be done.  You dig through the junk drawer in search of batteries for the smoke detectors because you know you will forget about that if you don’t take care of it immediately.  Your tongue feels like sand paper, your bladder is threatening to explode and your throat is yearning for relief.   You are resolved; you will only allow yourself to have water once everything is complete. Then and only then, will you take the dog outside.  You pretend you are not thirsty and ignore the dog who is slinking into his bed with his head lowered in shame.  You also realize there is some sort of alarm blaring upstairs but you don’t stop vacuuming.

4. You are busy working on tasks around your home.  You hope to complete all of your household tasks before 5:00 p.m.  You notice that you are very thirsty and the dog is frantically indicating that it wants to go outside.  This is probably because the dog is scared of loud noises and every smoke detector in the house is peeling out ear piercing decibels of alarm.  As you look for something to clean up the dog urine from the floor you notice there is quite a commotion outside.  You aren’t sure but you think you hear fire trucks getting closer.  You:

A.  Pause to fill up the ice cube trays and also fill the dog’s water and food bowls. You take a glass out of the cupboard which you will use later for drinking water.

B.  Decide to finish the vacuuming before drinking water. Scold the dog for urinating on the rug.

C.  Tell yourself that you should wait until you have finished all of the tasks before drinking water. Tell the dog he needs more self control.  Continue to look for those pesky batteries and add rug cleaner to your shopping list.  You finally find the batteries which were hiding underneath the fire extinguisher in the junk drawer.  You cross batteries off of your shopping list.

D.  Admonish yourself for thinking about water and berate the dog for being a wimp that can’t hold his urine and is afraid of loud noises.  You will only allow yourself to have water once everything is complete,   Then, and only then, will you take the dog outside.  You pretend you are not thirsty and ignore the dog who is frantically barking at the door. You ignore the pounding on the door and the ring of the phone, you are way too busy to socialize at the moment.  You make a mental note to remind your family that the fire extinguisher belongs under the sink not in the junk drawer.

E.  You get a drink of water.

This is the end of the test, I hope I added a little humor to your day. More importantly, I am trying to make a very timely point.  Continue reading for the important part, the twist.

I admit that when I first heard the phrase, “Black Lives Matter”, I responded with, “All Lives Matter”.  I wasn’t mad and wasn’t trying to be insensitive. I simply didn’t understand the magnitude of the situation. I think I kind of get it now. At the present, saying all lives matter is like deciding to put the fire extinguisher under the sink when the house is burning down over your head, because that is where the fire extinguisher belongs. It doesn’t make sense.

Priorities are important. Without them we might be so rigid that we refuse to let the dog out and ignore the smell of smoke. Priorities make us focused and driven, but they can also give us tunnel vision, if we aren’t careful. They can cause us to tune out what is happening around us and only see things from our own, tiny, limited perspectives.

The hate I am witnessing, hearing and reading is cutting us apart and shredding our country. Christians used to fear terrorists, now we fear each other.

There is nothing wrong with vacuuming the house or postponing getting a drink of water for a few minutes.  But can we all agree that to-do-lists and drinks of water are not important when the freaking house is on fire? It is as if we are all in the living room and we are so busy shouting (and not listening) about conspiracy, politics and which lives are the important ones, that we tune out the scream of the smoke detector and the wail of the fire truck alarms We gasp for air to try to make our points, but all we accomplish is pulling acrid, deadly, smoke into our lungs.

Now is the time that we need to all band together and do what has to be done.  It is too late to blame the dog; it is time to accept responsibility for our actions and/or lack of actions.  Not answering the door or the phone, the equivalent of being silent, doesn’t work. The house is on fire and can no longer be ignored.  The horrific crimes of hate against blacks are fanning the flames and THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE!  Are we going to try to continue with our own cute little agendas or are we going to bust our asses and put out the fire before it consumes all of us?

I sincerely apologize to any and all that felt minimized by my past statement of, “All Lives Matter”.  Yes, they do, but right now our attention needs to be on the way black people are treated for no other reason than the color of their skin. If we can truly love our neighbors as ourselves the rest of the crap will work itself out in time. By the way, in case you didn’t know, we are all neighbors. If you want to continue to argue that your priorities, your health-care, your statues, your rights…, are more important than everyone else’s, that’s okay, go ahead and stand there in the living room until the smoke asphyxiates you or the roof falls down on your head,  I am grabbing the dog and we are going outside. I will take my face-mask but I am skipping the rose-colored glasses, we have work to do.